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Introducing a set of films by one of African cinema’s most innovative
directors:

Djibril Diop Mambéty (January 1945 - July 23, 1998, was a Senegalese film
director, actor, orator, composer and poet.

The son of a Muslim cleric and member of the Lebou tribe, Djibril Diop
Mambéty was born near Senegal's capital city of Dakar in Colobane, a town
featured prominently in some of his films. Mambéty's interest in cinema
began with theater. Having graduated from acting school in Senegal,
Mambéty worked as a stage actor at the Daniel Sorano National Theater in
Dakar until he was expelled for disciplinary reasons. In 1969, at age 24,
without any formal training in filmmaking, Mambéty directed and produced
his first short film, Contras' City (City of Contrasts). The following
year Mambéty made another short, Badou Boy, which won the Silver Tanit
award at the 1970 Carthage Film Festival in Tunisia….

Touki Bouki/The Journey of the Hyena (Senegal, 1973, 85min, DVD)

Touki Bouki is the story of two young lovers who long to escape to Paris.
Like their New Wave counterparts in France, young Mory and his girlfriend
Anta are alienated from their own society and imagine freedom far from the
dusty streets of their hometown Dakar.

They embark on an exhilarating picaresque adventure as they try to hustle
money for their passage.

When they finally succeed, Mory imagines himself riding triumphantly into
Dakar like a Wolof prince, and suddenly Paris and all its mysteries is
within their reach.

But soon they realize that the rift between these two worlds is all too real.

Mambety meticulously mixes modern cinematique techniques with African
oral traditions, thus revealing a powerful story about the subjugation of
African society through cultural alienation.

Festivals and Awards
International Critic's Prize at Cannes and Special Jury Prize Moscow Film
Festival.

...

Hyenes/Hyenas (Senegal, 1992, 110min, DVD)

Dramaan Drameh (Mansour Diof) is a respected, convivial shopkeeper in the
tiny village of Colobane. But a forgotten act of cruelty committed thirty
years in his past comes back to haunt him when the young girl he
impregnated and abandoned returns seeking revenge. Now a weary,
calculating millionaires, Linguère Ramatou (Ami Diakhate) offers the
citizens of Colobane her riches in exchange for just one thing: the life
of the man who betrayed her. Dramaan's neighbors at first scoff at
Linguère's gruesome offer but -- dazzled by the televisions, cigarettes,
and refrigerators Linguère's money can buy -- they begin to reconsider
their allegiance to Colobane's once beloved merchant...and the "reign of
the hyenas" begins.

A shrewd glimpse of human nature at its darkest, Hyenas has been
celebrated by audiences around the world as a witty, acidic satire of
consumer culture and its corruption of modern Africa. It was ingeniously
adapted by Mambéty from Swiss writer Friedrich Durrenmatt's play The
Visit.

Awash in the hypnotic colors and intoxicating sounds of West Africa,
Hyenas is a wicked comedy by director Djibril Diop Mambéty (Touki Bouki),
depicting the devastating effects of greed on a small, poverty-stricken
village.

...

Le Franc (Senegal, 1994, 44min, DVD)

Marigo the musician dreams of his instrument – a congoma – which his
landlady has impounded because of his chronic rent non-pay-ments.
Desperate, he decides to glue his lottery ticket to the back of his door
and cover it with the poster of his childhood hero.
The night of the drawing, a fortune blinds Marigo: the winning number is
the same as the one as the ticket stuck to his door!
Marigo can see it now: he, a millionaire, with a thousand congomas, an
orchestra and private plane…So he tears the door from its hinges and takes
it to the lottery office…

Le Franc is the first part in a planned trilogy, “Histoires de petites
gens” (Tales of Little People).

To the director, the title of this first film, Le Franc (The Franc) not
only refers to money one wins or steals but also the “frank” individual.

This first film in Mambety's uncompleted trilogy, Contes des Petites Gens
(Tales of Little People), Le Franc (1994) uses the French government's
devaluation of the CFA Franc to comment on the absurd schemes people
concoct to survive a system that rewards greed rather than merit.

...

La petite vendeuse de Soleil (Senegal, 1999, 45min, DVD)

For a very long time, the hawkers who sold newspapers on the streets of
Dakar were, without exception, all boys.
Sili – a decrypt, beggar girl no older than thirteen years old working the
same streets is one morning violently pushed aside by the boys!
In her humiliation, she decides to challenge their domination!

The small world of the newspaper sellers is a merciless place.
She will discover pain, dreams... and finally, friendship.

This story is a hymn to the courage of street children.

The film takes a sympathetic and optimistic look at the struggle and
potential of Africa's most oppressed--young, female, poor, disabled. The
movie is accompanied by a score by Mambéty's brother, Wasis Diop. This
film was selected as one of the ten best films of 2000 by the Village
Voice. Reviewer for The New York Times, A.O. Scott described the film as a
"masterpiece of understated humanity."

...

Parlons Grand-mére/Let's talk Grandmother (Senegal, 1989, 34min, DVD)

A documentary on the filming of "Yaaba", a film by Idrissa Ouedraogo. The
character of the grandmother featured in "Yaaba" becomes the central image
of this film.

http://www.arteeast.org/pages/cinemaeast/series/mambety/